Blind Gemini
by Rachael-Rose
Summary: Rewritten, and I finally feel able to share it here as well as at Teaspoon. Last in the Everybody Lives series.
1. Chapter 1

"Uh…hello…"

"You're late!" The Doctor gaped at the man who was pushing his way to the front of the crowd that had formed in the aisle. "Still, better late than never, I suppose…what's up? You look a bit dazed."

"What are you doing here?" Without waiting for a reply, the Doctor ran back into the TARDIS, poked a few screens, and ran back out, almost knocking the other man down. "What _are_ you doing here?" he repeated.

"Rift. Stupid thing keeps spewing people up everywhere." He shrugged, as if it was obvious. "Throwing people from one side to the other. Usually they get back, I didn't. Not complaining, mind you…oh, no."

"What?"

"You just came through the Rift, yeah? From Earth."

The Doctor looked confused. "But this is Earth. Oh."

A commotion broke out suddenly at the front of the room, and a few heads turned. "You're in trouble," the man said simply, laughing.

As an explanation began to form in his mind, the Doctor found that this was all too much information to process, even for him. An abrupt sense of nausea washed over him and he found himself grabbing for the nearest support, which happened to be Martha's hurriedly outstretched arm. Sitting down on the floor and rubbing his head, another painfully familiar voice floated over to him.

"Leave the poor guy alone, Jack, he's just fallen through Hell."

The Doctor looked up, swearing to himself that this was all a dream (or possibly some kind of twisted nightmare), and checking that the voice really belonged to who he thought it did.

The grinning face looking down at him was definitely not what he expected.

"Okay, so that was a bit hypocritical. Tell Jack off, then stick this ugly mug in your face." The woman laughed out loud. She was bouncing on her heels, smiling like a maniac and acting like a kid at Christmas. Either hyper, compensating for something, or both, the Doctor thought.

"Compensating," the woman said, as if she'd read his mind. "I'm a bit annoyed, actually. See, when someone turns up on this side, from somewhere nearby a person tends to get sent over there. Bride's gone."

"Doctor, what's going on?" Martha piped up, finding her voice. The woman seemed to notice her for the first time, and the way that Martha was staring back at her.

"That's okay. At least you didn't come up with a bad clown joke." She looked pointedly at Jack.

The Doctor and Martha took in the woman's appearance properly. She was average height, with a shock of red hair that looked like it hadn't been brushed in years. Covering her eyes was what looked like a white masquerade mask, except without eyeholes. It was fitted so closely to her face that it was almost a second skin. But, despite whatever was going on here, messing with his head, he still knew one thing for certain. He recognised that mouth, and the voice that came out of it.

The Doctor got to his feet, ignoring the impulse to try and work this out. It really didn't matter right now. Gently removing Martha's helping hand from his arm, he approached the masked woman, looked her up and down briefly, and threw his arms around her, surprised when she returned the gesture. He stood back and regarded her again, and said three words.

"I love you."


	2. Chapter 2

"When this is over, I'm going to kill you with my bare hands." Rose, as though the kiss had never happened, turned and stalked back towards the official the Doctor could now see at the front of the room. They spoke quietly for a few moments, and then Rose addressed the crowd.

"Thanks to this idiot's – as ever – _perfect_ timing," there were a few knowing laughs, "we seem to have lost the bride. Therefore, the ceremony is postponed until he gets her back. My apologies."

"Excuse me? Get her back? It wasn't my fault! I don't even know who she is!" the Doctor protested, feeling more and more overwhelmed. This was all completely impossible, and he found himself pinching his arm hard more than once in an attempt to believe he wasn't dreaming. He was in a new universe; one that should be falling apart at the seams after what they'd just done. Jack was there; so there was already a great big hole that should have destroyed everything long before now. And Rose was ginger. Not only grossly unfair, but bloody weird.

"Maybe it wasn't, but you're the one with the means, so you're going," insisted Rose, folding her arms and reminding the Doctor very much of Jackie. Where was she, anyway? "And when you do get her back, and when we've reorganised this hitherto shambles of a wedding, you can walk her down the aisle."

The Doctor's eyes widened; if he'd been able to see behind that white mask, he was sure Rose would have been winking at him. The smile on her face was as good as a wink, though, and he felt as though the bottom had dropped out of something he didn't know he had. Jack, who had so far been watching the entire thing with amused interest, put a friendly arm around his shoulder and hugged him.

"Jack?" the Doctor mumbled, not enjoying playing mouse, as opposed to cat, one little bit. "I'm late, aren't I?"

"Oh, yeah," laughed the captain. "Come on then." He manoeuvred the Doctor towards the doors of the TARDIS, beckoning for a completely baffled Martha to follow, and sending a reassuring smile back at the glare Rose gave the strange woman. After taking one look at the expression on the Doctor's face, he prayed to every benevolent God he could think of that he could still remember how to fly the thing.


	3. Chapter 3

"Captain Jack Harkness at your service, ma'am." Martha looked up from her position on the floor to weakly shake the hand the grinning man was offering. Seeing her worried expression, he changed tack. "You okay?" he asked quietly, settling down beside her on the floor.

"Is he okay?" Martha gestured vaguely towards the Doctor, who was slumped across the captain's chair, staring vacantly at the moving time rotor, apparently not caring one jot that someone else was piloting _his_ ship.

"He's shocked."

"I got the impression she didn't like me."

"Rose is all right. She's just devastatingly in love with the Doctor, that's all. She's a good judge of character, and I think she liked you really."

Martha felt a light come on in her head and nodded, understanding. "I remember now. He's got pictures of her all over one of the libraries. I thought she was blonde."

"Yeah…" he muttered, looking anywhere but at Martha. "Well, things have changed, I guess." This was obviously something not to be discussed in front of a fragile Doctor, and they were quiet for a while before she asked another question. "I hope you don't think I'm being rude, but why does she wear that mask thing?"

Jack jerked his head in the direction of the captain's chair, and she mouthed a quick 'sorry' at him. "Nothing personal," he said, "but it's something he needs to hear first, and I don't think it's a good time."

"How did you get there anyway, Jack?" a voice piped up, surprising them both. The Doctor was wandering around the console; apparently back to normal, although clearly deep in thought. The question was voiced absently, and Jack wasn't sure he'd hear even if he got an answer.

"I was out on a job a while after I last saw you. Remember that whacking great rift over Cardiff? Well, it got bigger. I was the other end of Wales when it happened. It'd been dumping people on either side for months, and not all human people either. Had us running all over the country causing a national Retcon shortage. They usually got sucked back by themselves after a while, no damage. And there was usually a swap, one person vanished as another turned up, and it'd fix itself when they went back. We just looked after them in between."

"How come you couldn't get back?"

"Don't know. I didn't really want to, anyway – not after I found Rose and the people she had with her. God, listen to me. That's not even her name anymore, not really." The Doctor looked at him quizzically, and Jack knew at once that he'd said too much. "Anyway, I don't know, like I said. By the way, when we get there, can you drop me off in Cardiff? I want to talk to Ianto. I need to explain."

The nodded. He understood too well the look on Jack's face. "I was going to start looking there anyway. I'll leave you at Torchwood while me and Martha go and track down our mystery bride. Hope it doesn't turn out like last time, mind you…nearly ended up with the poor old girl exploding." He patted the console affectionately and was rewarded with a tremor that knocked them all to the ground. "Must be nearly there!" he yelled excitedly. "Hold on!"

The more violent part of the trip was surprisingly and mercifully short, and after leaving Jack with a promise to be back in twelve hours (more or less), the Doctor and Martha set off in the direction that a bleeping blue sonic screwdriver directed them.

"You know, this is getting boring, really," the Doctor said as they walked. "If anything interesting happens, it happens here. Which is okay, but for once why can't it be somewhere else…hold on!"

"What?"

"She's over there!" He spun on his heels with the screwdriver held out at arms length in front of him. "Over there by the TARDIS," he added, bemused. They approached and walked twice round it, and became even more confused.

"Where did you say she was?" Martha raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"She's in there." The Doctor pointed at the ship's doors. "What's a stranger doing in my TARDIS?"


End file.
